The Slip (album)
link * Blender * IGN 8.8/10 link * Kerrang! * NME link * Pitchfork Media link * PopMatters link * Rolling Stone link * The Second Supper link * Slant Magazine link * Spin link | Last album = Ghosts I–IV (2008) | This album = The Slip (2008) | Next album = }} The Slip (also known as Halo 27) is the eighth major studio release by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The album was released free of cost on May 5, 2008 via digital download on the official Nine Inch Nails website. The album was made available without any prior notice or advertisement, and in a similar fashion as the band's previous release, Ghosts I–IV, released two months earlier. The album was produced by Trent Reznor alongside Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder. The album was released under a Creative Commons license, allowing fans to remix and reuse all or part of the album non-commercially. Recording After a month of songwriting, The Slip was performed and recorded in three weeks of studio time at Reznor's in-home studio. The album was produced by Atticus Ross and mixed by Alan Moulder. Instrumental performances were contributed by live-band members Josh Freese, Robin Finck, and Alessandro Cortini. During the album's recording sessions, Reznor personally sent the album's first and only single "Discipline" to radio stations before the album was completed. According to Reznor, the track listing and lyrics were finished on a Wednesday (May 1), the final mix and sequencing on Thursday, the mastering on Friday, artwork on Saturday, and the album was released on Sunday (May 5). Reznor reflected on the quick turnaround by saying "That was fun... You never could have done that before", referring to his previous struggles with his record labels. Release Before the release, a single, "Discipline" was released freely on the official Nine Inch Nails site, and another song, "Echoplex", was released for free download from iLike. The ID3 tags of these MP3 files indicated that fans should visit the Nine Inch Nails website on May 5, 2008. On May 5, a free direct download link to the album in MP3 format was posted on the official Nine Inch Nails webste, with a message from Reznor that said: "thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one's on me". Like the previous Nine Inch Nails studio album Ghosts I–IV, The Slip was released under a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial share alike license, in effect allowing anyone to use or rework the material for any non-profit purpose, as long as credit is provided and the resulting work is released under an identical license. The website further expands by saying "we encourage you to remix it, share it with your friends, post it on your blog, play it on your podcast, give it to strangers, etc." As with Ghosts I–IV and Year Zero, multi-track audio source files of the album were also made available at remix.nin.com. Release versions The digital download is available in five different audio formats. The lowest quality is VBR V0 MP3, followed by two lossless formats, FLAC and Apple Lossless. Also released were 24-bit, 96 kHz FLAC and WAV files. As with Ghosts I-IV each album track features its own art. The lyrics for each track are embedded using ID3 tags, allowing for their viewing in supported media players. Physical copies of the record are coming soon. A six-panel digipack limited to 250,000 numbered units worldwide will be released in the U.S. and Canada on July 22. A 180 gram gatefold vinyl LP will see release in Europe on August 4, 2008, and in the United States the day after. By late June 2008, The Slip has been downloaded 1,400,000 times directly from the official Nine Inch Nails website.http://www.webcitation.org/5YvHvzNuD Music IGN commented that "Discipline" and "Echoplex" channeled "bits and pieces of Depeche Mode, Bauhaus, and even some Siouxsie and the Banshees." Richard Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times called The Slip "murkier and less catchy than the last couple of regular NIN albums", but that "Reznor blends the jarring sounds of the industrial rock genre ... with a terse, punk-like attack, bringing an insistent, sometimes claustrophobic feel to his scenarios of alienation". The Cleveland Free Times commented that "The Slip more or less sums up the terrain Reznor's covered in his nearly two-decade career", and went on to compare the album sound with the "edgy but irresistible beats" of Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral, and "the elusive atmospherics" of 1999's The Fragile. The New York Times commented that "the music revives Nine Inch Nails’ past, from stomping hard rock to dance-club beats to piano ballad to inexorably building instrumentals." Critical reception Critical response to The Slip has been generally positive, with an average rating of 77% based on nine reviews on Metacritic. IGN gave the album an 8.8 out of 10, stating "Simply put, The Slip is an amazing record". The SputnikMusic review, while generally positive, described the album as "more like a collection of songs than an album. There is no real point to it". The Toronto Star stated, The Slip is "hardly a throwaway, this seems a sincere gift to fans". Pitchfork Media gave the album a 7.5 out of 10, observing "Reznor's unique capacity to commingle raging industrial bangers with ballads and ambient instrumental passages appears in its best form since The Downward Spiral, and here gains much of the focus and restraint that many remember used to be his calling card." LA Weekly said "Musically, it’s his most adventurous work since The Fragile, and his business model is inspired — if unsustainable." Like with Ghosts I–IV, the album's unorthodox distribution methods also garnered the attention of various news agencies. An ABC News op ed questioned if consumers would "ever pay for an album again" stating "with NIN now in the game, its hard to argue that this is anything but a harbinger of the future". Commenting on the distribution of the album, Dave LaGesse of U.S. News & World Report said "The move seems an even purer play than what Radiohead did with its most recent album, In Rainbows". Track listing All songs written and composed by Trent Reznor. #"999,999" – 1:25 #"1,000,000" – 3:56 #"Letting You" – 3:49 #"Discipline" – 4:19 #"Echoplex" – 4:45 #"Head Down" – 4:55 #"Lights in the Sky" – 3:29 #"Corona Radiata" – 7:33 #"The Four of Us Are Dying" – 4:37 #"Demon Seed" – 4:59 Personnel *Trent Reznor – performance, production, writing, art direction *Josh Freese – performance *Robin Finck – performance *Alessandro Cortini – performance *Atticus Ross – production, programming, engineering *Alan Moulder – mixing, production, engineering *Michael Tuller – engineering *Brian Gardner – mastering *Steve "Coco" Brandon – room tuning *Rob Sheridan – art direction References External links *[http://theslip.nin.com/ Official The Slip website] *[http://www.archive.org/details/nine_inch_nails_the_slip The Slip at Archive.org] Category:2008 albums Category:Albums free for download by copyright owner Category:Albums produced by Alan Moulder Category:Albums produced by Atticus Ross Category:Albums produced by Trent Reznor Category:Creative Commons-licensed works Category:Internet albums Category:Nine Inch Nails albums Category:Self-released albums it:The Slip pl:The Slip pt:The Slip ru:The Slip fr:The Slip es:The Slip